Georgian Foreign Ministry expressed “deep concern” over resumption by the Russian “occupying forces” installation of fences along some portions of administrative boundary line of breakaway South Ossetia and condemned it as “illegal action” affecting negatively on daily livelihood and freedom of movement of local population.

It said that installation of fences, “which had been suspended for past two weeks”, resumed in the areas adjacent to the villages of Atsotsi and Gogeti of Kareli municipality, southwest from Tskhinvali.

“Critical situation in Georgia’s occupied regions and adjacent areas demonstrates once again the necessity of putting in place international security and human rights monitoring mechanisms,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said and called on the international community to react on Russia’s “illegal actions.”

State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, Paata Zakareishvili, said that resumption of installation of fences after the Sochi Olympic Games “was expected” by the Georgian authorities.

Georgian PM’s special representative for relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze, noted that placing of fences resumed right after the Sochi Games. “It seems that during the Olympics they [Russian authorities] were trying to avoid a scandal,” Abashidze said and added that he will raise the issue when he meets his Russian interlocutor, deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin in Prague in early March.